Program for OCTOBER 27th

Proposition 90: Private v. Public Benefits

Meeting of October 20th, 2006

Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day

Prez George called us into a moment of silence for peace.
Glenn Daggs led the Pledge of Allegiance and Prez-In-Waiting
Pam Jones thought for the day went something like: "Age
and treachery will triumph over youth and skill." (But
now that I read it, I must have gotten it wrong or Pam’s
a bigger cynic than I thought. Oh well, it’s
an election year.)

Visiting Rotarians

Doreen Covel was our visiting Rotarian from Pinole.

Rotarians with Guests

Just back from a trip to Spain (& Italy) attending
their son's wedding, Hank (again) introduced his wife,
guest, and traveling companion, Doreen. Markku
Pelanne introduced his wife Mary as his guest. Werner
Schwartz introduced his guest (whose name escaped the note taker)
and Jonathon Lawlis introduced his son Nick.

Sunshine Report

No news is good new sand it was a sunshiny day.

Announcements

It’s time to dig into those treasure trunks
and get out those collectable treasures (Autographed
Guy Lombardo records, Studebaker hubcaps, still in
the original box Vegematic, half empty bottle of Southern
Comfort autographed by Janis Joplin) and limber
up your wallets because Richmond Rotary's legendary
Holiday Auction is Dec. 15. EXPECT a call from
the two Jims (Jim Beaver & Don Lau) and be prepared
to give ‘til it helps!

The train ride to Reno is January 21-22. Get your
$ and reservation to John Nicol.

NIAD reception and open house is October 26 from
5:30 to 7PM. This is highly recommended for members
who can not wait until we have a program about NIAD.

Friday, December 1 is the Annual Rotary Christmas
Party at the Richmond Country Club. We will again
be celebrating with the El Cerrito Rotary Club. Time
and cost TBA.

Special Recognitions

DAB, otherwise known as David Brown
Esq., wearing his
Treasurer’s Hat, recognized the day-in day-out
efforts of the Peres School teaching staff by presenting
Peres Principal Dr. Scott 24x$100 checks from Richmond
Rotary for the Peres teachers to help purchase some of
the supplies the teacher personally provide their students.

David was on a roll so he also recognized the Escape
Club of Adams Middle School with a $750 “buy gas” check. The
money will be used to reimburse parents and others who
drive the Escape Club members to outings like Yosemite,
Tahoe and other places many young people in West County
never experience.

Of course these contributions like all club contributions
were approved by your Rotary Board and not the product
of DAB’s otherwise good works. -Editor.

Happy and Sad Dollars

Tony Thurmond gave gracious recognition to Jan
Brown for her volunteer graphic design work for Beyond Emancipation,
a program for Alameda County Foster Youth (where Tony
serves as Executive Director).

Erle Brown was sad to miss the Cal game this weekend,
but figured that his daughter's wedding was well worth
the preemption! Congratulations Erle and Phyllis, and
we hope the event wasn’t a cliff hanger like
Cal's rough victory over Washington.

Past Prez Jonathon had a great time at the District
Conference but was sad that only two other Rotarians
(Werner and Pam) attended.

Herb Cole had double happy dollars
as he enjoyed a day on Mike Winter's yacht
and collected on a fabulous auction item (along with Prez-elect
Pam). And,
ready to travel again, Herb looks forward to going
to Ghana next week with Jon Lawlis to
hand out anti-malaria mosquito nets and Sabin Polio
vaccine on behalf of Rotary (Herb No-Sturgeon-Left-Behind
Cole, did you notice how Mike Winter’s
boat trip actually happened before the next Holiday
Auction?). Werner
Schwartz had happy dollars that somehow related to
Herb Cole and Jonathon Lawlis (and it may be best
that none of us know exactly how).

George Egan was happy to celebrate a birthday with
his sweetheart before the Opera, at the Lincoln Center
in NY.

Ted Abreu is happy to be here, back from Italy.

Raffle Results

There was a raffle for $530. Nabil “Bill” Wabeh got another chance, a white ball and a free lunch.

The Program

Past President and retired (Praise the Lord!) WCCUSD
Superintendent Herb Cole welcomed Rotary rookie and new
WCCUSD Superintendent Bruce Harter to the program podium. Herb
gave an unusually short and succinct description of an
educational professional that has managed schools and
school districts all over the US, Michigan, Delaware,
Florida, California and several states in between. Herb
made the point that managing our school district isn’t
just about education, its big business. WCCUSD
with a $288 million budget, 3,000+ employees, a $1 billion
capital improvement program and 30,000+ students is a
major economic force in West County.

Bruce, taking up his projector remote and laser pointer,
acknowledged that Herb’s “big business” characterization
of the district was accurate, but that all of that “big” served
the needs of providing education to the community, both
young and old. Bruce first pointed out his school
uniform, like the ones that have been adopted by 90%
of the schools in the district. He went on to use
the PowerPoint to show the dramatic improvements that
$1 billion can make in our now renovated, otherwise fully
depreciated schools, and, the much less dramatic but
measurable improvement in student proficiency evidenced
by modest improvements in State API elementary reading
scores.

Bruce said student/school community safety and student
learning achievement are the core focus. The district
is going to reduce the “achievement gap” that
exists between its Anglo/Asian and Afro/Latin American
student communities. Bruce also characterized this
difference as “economic predictability gap” and
made the point that his goal is to make socio-economic
status less relevant to student achievement. Bruce’s
presentation used graphs to simultaneously show that
recent improvements are real, but the district has a
long way to go to meet State objectives for student performance.
Bruce’s graphs also documented the performance
difference between the district’s ethnic groups,
showing the gap starting in kindergarten and extending
all the way to graduation. He stated his goal of
seeing those two performance tracks intersect. The
intersection is going to happen because the district
is going to raise the performance of the low performing
students without reducing the performance of successful
students.

Another important and disturbing demographic trend Bruce
identified was the general drop in student enrollment,
7% at WCCUSD, 14% in local private schools, a statewide
trend and a train wreck in the making for a district
that is trying to increase educational resources and
classroom time for its student population. The
Editor reminds the members that unless we approve new
general or specific taxes, school district revenue is
solely determined by student attendance.

Bruce really had a lot to say so we will bullet point
other main topics:

There needs to be more time for school. Time
for teacher collaboration. Time for parent involvement,
and;

Time for more classroom learning, i.e. a longer school
day.

All graduating students should be able to begin post
secondary education without any remediation.

Career Academies and career focus are going to evolve
from Richmond and Kennedy HS’ to all the high
schools.

Important Q&A followed:

Q: With all that BIG in your introduction,
is the WCCUSD “too big”? A: Maybe,
if we can not deliver the education and other services
our students need.

Q: Are we ever going to see electives
in the middle schools again? A: Yes, and
that’s
another reason to extend the school day.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge? A: Finding
quality teachers. It’s the hardest job in
the world and you can’t “buy” them. It’s
a calling. You have to find people that are mission
driven.

Thank you Bruce and welcome again to Richmond Rotary.

Bruce is looking for more opportunities
to share this presentation with other groups within the
community. If you can help him make connections with
those groups, please give him a call. Better yet,
send an e-mail to Debbie Haynie his Executive Secretary,
at Debbie.Haynie@gw.wccusd.k12.ca.us -Editor.